You know, changes aren't always bad. They are often good and necessary. PlaneShift is a game in its alpha status, I think, hence, changes will be happening all the time. But for each individual, certain changes are better or worse than for others.
Quick example, the changes to the combat system at the beginning of 018... Oh, what a huge uproar; three or four threads about the same topic going on at a time, where 2 fractions were heavily arguing with eachother over pages in the two-digits. Those who welcomed the changes against those who highly defended the old system, and even started a petition to have it reverted. But our voice remained unheard, or at least it didn't have an impact on things. Anyway, after a while, it appeared, that the new system isn't as bad as we all thought, it is kind of a compromise, but however, even though I fully accepted and inhaled the new system by now, in some parts the old one was just better, and a lot of people couldn't get warm with the new system, or didn't even take the time to get warm with it. Their own loss? Maybe, but it's sad nonetheless.
This change, however, drove away LOTS of people, people I liked, people I enjoyed training with, and due to the lack of those who appreciate dueling altogether, the PvP feature, or to be more accurate, the awesome atmosphere that was spread by our DR-dueling 'parties', has almost vanished by now. Some will now say 'Meh, duel parties in DR, how childish and OOC', but if you would have happened to be one of us, who enjoyed the training and the atmosphere, the friendship that grew that way, you would shed a tear for what this particular change has brought upon you.
But back to my original arguments. Those I listed, were just some examples of what I felt was going the wrong way. Again, this was from my own personal point of view, for some people these very changes are surely associated with the only right way to go. But well, for me, the game has made some steps back, and some to the side, fun-wise. To be honest, if I'd wake up some day, and my client reads version 0.3.016, I would be the last one to complain, despite all the great changes, that came along with the updates. But that's not going to be happen, and I'll have to accept that. That's how life goes, on and on, all the time.
Actually, I don't really mind the increasing amount of quests, it has its downsides, but many quests are necessary to keep it interesting for the oldbies and to provide a dense atmosphere, story-wise. And the mine at the magic shop, well, I'm gonna miss that for sure, but to move the location of a mine is just a minor change. Though, with a big impact for some of us. Because of that, and of course the greatly reduced amount of gold ore being found, I'll rather grind trepors, than mining for gold ever again. Actually, grinding is what I've done the last 3 days to earn money. 15k in 20-30 minutes. and about 2500 pp each load... it's boring, yes, but so is mining. And this change, the decreased gold ore deposit, also drove away lots of people, which is very sad. It's just hard to improve your character skill-wise, and to enjoy that, when you have to spend tons of your time in the mines, in order to afford the next level of whatsoever. It's just no fun to do so, thus, lots of people have left, and many other will leave soon after. Will that make the devs happy? No, since that wasn't their intention in the first place, it's simply a loss they will just take, and I'm sure they might say something like >Quality over quantity<, and >Those who stay have the real spirit to stick with the project< to backup their decision, and i wouldn't blame them for it since this might actually be true. However, driving away players is never a good thing.
And what I've said about PlaneShift having become more of a grinder... that's the truth, it has indeed evolved into that direction. So far it isn't as bad as in other games, the number of mobs is still acceptable, but in order not to encourage a grinding behaviour, the amount of players and the amount of NPCs should be in balance. And just to clarify, grinding is not the same as powerleveling. Right now, people - like me - are grinding to earn money, so this is not only a way of life for the powerlevelers, but also for those who'd rather want to be a crafter or [insert other form of (role-)player here].
PlaneShift, from my own understanding, was always a world for everyone. Roleplayers aswell as powerlevelers, questers, PvP'ers, crafters, ... . And this is what it should be like. Why should we exclude a certain type of player, or in other words, who are we to tell others how to play a game along with the features provided? Everyone should be allowed to enjoy PlaneShift, no matter where he comes from, what his motivations are, his beliefs, or his way to play. But over time, the balance between all the types of players got lost. On one hand, grinding is - due to the lack of time for digging - more encouraged, while on the other hand the outrunning gold was meant to discourage the powerlevelers. The PvP aspects have more and more been driven into an underground thing (in 0-3.016 it wouldn't have taken 3 or 4 weeks to find 24 players signing up for a tournament), which pleases the hardcore-roleplayers, but took away a certain something for the duelers. The best weapons available are now the self made ones, which pleases the crafters, but makes it uninteresting for the hunters, who were always motivated by finding some nice stuff...
The list of things that in my opinion got out of balance, can surely be expanded, but I think you know what I mean. All in all, the community seemed to have thinned out. I, and many others, have lost many friends of different types of players. people who played occasionally, due to a lack of time, people who enjoyed dueling, people who enjoyed hunting, and so on.
For to come to an end, I am very well aware of the fact, that the current situation is not to be permanent. Things will change, like they used to, but whether or not they are going the right way, is to decide each for our own.
Thank you for reading,
~~Rongar
